On Monday we had our first set of gaming contestants make their way through the perilous and demanding course that is The Beast, using all their skills to accrue as many points as they could. Twelve competitors became eight, then five and then the remaining and best two, Kain from the Legacy of Kain series and Mega Man X from the eponymous series, met face to face for Level 4, with X using his superior movement to beat the ancient vampire and claim the title of Beastmaster, earning 10.000 of whatever currency they use in his 20XX time period.

Indubitably, the judges’ decision to allow the X buster granted the robot a big advantage, especially in acquiring point thrusters!

But as this week closes and another looms, new challengers emerge from the shadows of the gaming industry and the internet, ready to face the Beast and join Mega Man X in the grand final for the title of Ultimate Beastmaster. More importantly, unlike our first competitors, which were chosen by myself for the competition, this week’s challengers have their own sponsors. We shall see if these blogging heroes have a keen eye for Beast conquering talent!

On another note, and before we introduce next week’s lineup, is the desperate need for conversion rules for those gaming competitors who are not from the action or adventure genres, those who don’t jump, punch and fly in their own games. The Ultimate Beastmaster is open to all of them. A particular case to look at are Fighting and Point & Click adventure characters, the former not doing much climbing and the latter often doing a lot with a single press of a mouse button. So how do we treat them? Here’s how:

Fighters:

Max running speed: the fastest they move across the fighting stage in their respective games, including special abilities that include movement. Example: Wolverine’s Berserker Barrage from the Marvel & Capcom games.

Jumping: the longest and highest jump from all their games will be considered as their max, including those ridiculous screen high jumps in the Marvel vs Capcom games.

Weight: Character build will increase the speed of the above stats. Dhalsim will be faster than Zangief.

Speed: Some characters are faster than their build would suggest, such as Bob from Tekken. Their fighting speed, will also adjust their athletic values for competing on the Beast.

Point & Click Adventurers:

Cinematic conversion: if they can do it in a cutscene, they can do it on the beast. Excludes anything relating to an item’s use, such as an ingame potion, curse, special piece of point & click future tech, etc.

With those rules set, it’s time to meet our new gaming athletes and their sponsors!

OverThinkerY’s building up a large roster, so I had to meet his team with my own picks. The rest of our sponsors are on the conservative side, watching how one of their athletes performs before, hopefully, committing with greater numbers! Let the best gaming character win the title of Beastmaster and come one step closer to beating all others in the finals, for the glory of the Ultimate Beastmaster.

The Beast vs the Ghost of Sparta, who will remain standing?

He’s gone from lightweight to heavyweight, and now he’ll go from Beastmaster to Ultimate Beastmaster!

Once she claims the Ultimate Beastmaster title, they will have to let her sing!

For most, the Beast is a terrifying monster, for Kirby it’s lunch!

He’s the original parkour expert, and he’s here to teach us all a lesson!

The first fighter to tackle the Beast, he’s here to prove his genre’s strength!

Guybrush is here to prove what Mighty Pirate really means!

The Beast is a punishing course, but in her short outings, Lara’s prove she can take a beating and keep on moving!

In Nathan’s eyes, the Beast is just another expensive set piece to run through.